New GAA president Larry McCarthy: ‘From this weekend, it’s about getting the entity up and running’

The Bishoptown man may be the first overseas president, but he could hardly be considered a stranger in GAA circles

New GAA president Larry McCarthy. Photo by Philip Fitzpatrick/Sportsfile

Ground Zero is a phrase too often ascribed to New York, but once again it felt like the epicentre of a tragedy last spring.

It was there that Larry McCarthy, only freshly anointed as GAA president, saw the horrific face of this pandemic first hand. Last June, he spoke of the harrowing sight of mass burials of victims in Potter’s Field on Hart Island, just off eastern coast of The Bronx. “Paupers graves — Black Plague stuff,” he recalls with a shudder.